Battle of the Blades

[amice]

The new season starts tonight!   I don't think they actually start competing this week, though.

Anyone else going to watch? 

[Sk8tmum]

I am; we really enjoy it. My son is a figure skater, which is a baffling thing to a lot of my co-workers and non-skating acquaintances. Or, it was. After the initial Battle of the Blades, we found people asking us intelligent questions, and understanding more of why he chooses to skate - they also had a lot more respect for what he does. He found the same thing at school. He was getting asked questions about how the jumps and spins work, and people wanting to come see him demonstrate figure skating stuff. Big difference from some of the negative stuff he's had to put up with over the years.

Even my father, who at age 85 still doesn't get why my kid doesn't play hockey, started getting into it, and it really helped make a connection between the two of them.

My daughter also found that a lot of her classmates got very interested in the sport.

So, you know, visibility and that helps the sport.

[Sierra]

I wanted to watch, couldn't find it, then realized it was a Canadian channel. Silly me.

Any other way to watch it? Will Hulu or Netflix have it?

[amice]

Sierra, unfortunately, I don't know how you can see the show, but maybe you can access videos on the web site.
http://www.cbc.ca/battle/index.html

Anyone else catch the first show?  I was surprised at how open some of the back stories were, a little mature for dd, but allowed for some good discussion after. 

I liked how they emphasized the difficulty learning to figure skate, especially with a partner, so people can see how much of a sport it really is.  I think that maybe part of why people underestimate the sport of figure skating is that they only ever watch the national and world competitions on TV, especially these days where you may only see the top 6 or so in each category, and the competitors are of a level to make everything look easy.  Battle of the Blades gives you a hint of how much harder it all really is. 

[Sk8tmum]

I liked also that they were discreet about Grinkov and Gordeeva. They gave her privacy, which I respected. I also enjoyed seeing the "tough hockey guys" showing that they were real, thoughtful people with emotions and brains. We're getting a different perspective on "both sides" of the ice, and that's good.